I want to use one of the newer LCD character displays that has a generous 40 x 4 character screen. This is done using 2 controllers in effect, with two enable lines. Has anyone tried this with an arduino? I am not sure if you can define two separate LCD objects, and at the same time share the same data lines.
I suppose I could if I bit-bang all the control signals, but that would be pretty tedious for both me and the microprocessor when we could both be doing better things.
I am not sure I want to spend the $25 bucks to get this 40 x 4 display, a 20 x 4 would be good enough, but when is good enough ever good enough?
I have done it with a PIC.
I just used my normal LCD routines, but with two enable lines.
I just wrote to LCD Lines 1 and 3 using Enable1, and lines 2 and 4 using Enable2.
The hard part was finding enough memory for the display buffers.
If you tie the write line (R/W) low, and do not define it, the Arduino software will operate them using a write only, so there is no worry that all LCDs will try to read back to the Arduino simultaneously.
The software is able to handle more ...at least 4 LCDs, likely more, and the pin definitions can be the same or different as required.